Tulu Bayar

Turkish-born artist Tulu Bayar embraces a diverse range of media in her studio practice, including photography, video, installation, sculpture, and drawing. Inspired by Rumi's teachings, her work explores the spiritual essence of wholeness and mysticism. Through meditative repetition and the philosophy of oneness, Bayar seeks to connect and harmonize binary concepts. 

Informed by her experiences as an immigrant artist, Bayar's practice occupies a hybrid space, blending influences from both her native and adopted cultures. She explores concepts such as exoticism, otherness, hybridism, and pluralism, seeking to blur boundaries and embrace spontaneous possibilities for expression.

Bayar sees her artistic journey as a metaphor for the immigrant experience—a continuous exploration on a contained surface, full of unexpected paths. Her process draws analogies between unconscious emotions and the repetition of marks, sound intonations, and hesitations, which are perceived beyond sight. Her work bridges the traditional and the experimental, honoring the past while engaging contemporary issues. Bayar begins each piece with a social issue, allowing the pragmatic to evolve and dissolve into an emotional dialogue with viewers. When the material transcends the literal, and a deeper connection is formed, she considers the work complete.

Bayar holds a BA from the University of Ankara and an MFA from the University of Cincinnati. She has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the US and Europe. Her work has been featured in notable media outlets, including NPR, Creatrix, Hyperallergic, Cultbytes, WhiteHot Magazine, The Irish Times, Afterimage, Photography Quarterly, TRT (National Public Broadcaster of Turkey), Bushwick Daily, Wall Street International Magazine, and Art in America.

Her artistic achievements have been supported by notable grants and fellowships, including the Puffin Foundation Grant in 2024, Andrew Mellon Confounding Problems Exhibition Catalog Grant in 2023 and Fulbright Scholar Grant in 2017. Additional funding for her projects includes the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation Exhibition Grant, the Ténot Foundation artist-in-residency grant from Camac Centre d'Art in France, the Center for Photography at Woodstock Artist in Residency Grant funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation, and the William Sackett Fellowship through the Virginia Center for Creative Arts Residency. She teaches lens-based media at Bucknell University.